1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for searching an electronic network, such as the Internet, for product-specific information, more particularly, to a method and means by which a user can retrieve product-specific information through databases on a global network by inputting the location of a billboard or signage representing the information sought.
2. Description of the Related Art
Manufacturers must provide information about their products to resellers, consumers, and others. Resellers need product information to select, promote and support the products they distribute. Consumers need information about available products to make informed buying choices. Advertisers, product analysts, manufacturer""s representatives, shippers and others also need information about the goods with which they deal.
Under current practices, product information typically originates with manufacturers and is primarily distributed in conventional print media, advertising and product packaging. This information is often incomplete, difficult to update, and available only to a limited distribution. Global electronic and computer networks, such as the Internet, permit manufacturers to make detailed, up-to-date product information available to all who are interested. However, it is difficult to investigate a particular product on a global computer network when the product is sold under more than one name, or when the user is not sure of the proper name of the product. Similarly, the user may not know who is the manufacturer of the products or may not know the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the manufacturer""s website. It therefore can be quite a time-consuming and complex procedure to do an effective product search through all of the websites and databases available that may contain pertinent information.
To facilitate a product search on a network or the Internet, prior art patents discuss placing barcodes or other symbology adjacent to or as part of the content of advertising print that an information provider wants to link to a particular global computer network location. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,210 to C. G. Call, discloses a system involving the storing of a plurality of Universal Product Codes (UCPs) in respective computers with web addresses (URLs) and storing cross-references of the UPCs and URLs in another computer which can be accessed by further networked computers using the UPCs to find the respective URLs. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,804,803 to B. J. Cragun et al., discloses the retrieval of a document by a client computer system using a scanned UPC to a create a URL location in a first server, from UPC and customer data retrieved from a second server, which URL may be used to obtain the document from the first server. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,829 to Robert T. Durst et al., discloses a system which utilizes a machine-readable code printed on a document to launch application software and retrieve an appropriate file by the use of a file location pointer encoded on the machine-readable code.
Although this is acceptable for a magazine or a one page flyer containing advertising content, it is not suitable for a billboard or signage that a user may be quickly passing and cannot scan the symbology with a hardware device or remember the symbology. Currently, there is no system which can link content provided on a computer network or the Internet with advertising media based on a location of where the advertising media is presented.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an interactive system whereby an individual can quickly and easily obtain a supply of the available information about a selected search object, such as a product and/or its manufacturers, from a global computer network.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an interactive method and means that enables an individual to search a global computer network and easily obtain a supply of information regarding a selected product without keying in an exact symbology.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an interactive system for searching a computer network whereby information regarding products and manufacturers can be quickly obtained, aggregate and stored for use based on the location of a billboard or sign advertising the product sought.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an interactive system for quickly and easily obtaining a supply of information about selected products and/or its manufacturer or provider from a server comprising a geo-coded database which will link geographic advertising locations to the advertising content providers.
The above-stated objects are met by an interactive search system that is directed to interact primarily with global computer networks, particularly the Internet, using geographic locations of advertising media to rapidly and effectively obtain a supply of product-related information for presentation to a user. In accordance with the present invention, a suitable terminal, typically a desktop computer and modem connection, is used to access an implementing server containing a geo-coded database linking product and manufacturer information to geographic locations of advertising media related to such product and manufacturer. Information relating to a particular product and its manufacturer is obtained when a user enters location data relating to a billboard or signage in which the user has been exposed to outside their normal computing environment, i.e., the home or office. The location data can be entered into the computer through manual input of data relating to the city, an approximate location, or zip code of the billboard. Alternatively, the location of the advertising media can be obtained by a location determination unit. The location determination unit may be a global positioning system (GPS) receiver or other unit capable of determining a geographic location of a receiver antenna. A user, through the use of a desktop computer and modem, transmits the location data to the implementing server which accesses data records which are indexed by location. The user is then presented with a list of references which were located within the geographic location specified. From the list, the user then selects the specific product or manufacturer in which they want to receive information from. The server is programmed to then perform a search of the global computer network or databases contained, in local server storage devices to locate websites relating to or operated by the manufacturer. Additionally, the server may search the global computer network on a product basis to locate other sites containing similar product information. The server can accordingly quickly assemble a collection of product related and manufacturer information. Preferably, the assembled information will provide the user with the name of the source for purchasing a particular product, and, further, the server will automatically link the computer with the source""s website on a global computer network, or pre-arranged site on the server, to permit direct ordering.
In a typical application employing the system of the subject invention, a user is driving along a road and sees a billboard containing an advertisement for a new hotel. The user is interested in additional information on this hotel. The user notes the city that the billboard is in and some keywords on the billboard. The user then returns to a land-based global computer terminal, i.e., a computer with an Internet browser, and goes to a designated site on the Internet and enters in the city, from a national list of cities, and the keywords. The user now transmits this information to the global computer network and the implementing server returns additional information on the advertisement.
Information options can include the ability of the user to receive more information on the advertisement, e-mail the advertiser or e-mail the advertisement to any other address on the global computer network. Further, the user can request additional information on the products in the advertisement and purchase the product from the manufacturer or any source selling the product.
In an enhancement of the system, the geographic location of the advertisement can be determined based on a location determination unit. Location determination units are well known in the art and their positioning information may be obtained from a GPS satellite, a Glonass satellite, a Pseudolite or by triangulation. As a user is driving along a road and sees the billboard containing an advertisement, the user may initiate the location determination unit to determine the exact location of the advertisement. By more accurately obtaining the location through the location determination unit, the system will operate more efficiently by narrowing the list of references found in the exact location.
The location determination unit may be incorporated into an automobile or may be part of a mobile computing device. The mobile computing device may be a notebook computer, laptop computer, or personal digital assistant (PDA). In a situation where the location determination unit is incorporated into a mobile computing device, as the user identifies a billboard or advertisement that they are interested in, the location determination unit obtains positioning information of the billboard and sends it to the mobile computing device for storage in its memory. At a later time the mobile computing device may connect to a land-based computer via a docking port or other coupling arrangement to synchronize the positioning data with the land-based computer. The land-based computer will then access the system for product and manufacturer information as described above.
As another enhancement of the system, the mobile computing device comprises a wireless communication means to access the implementing server or the Internet. The above-mentioned computing means, i.e., laptop or PDA, can incorporate a wireless communication link through a cellular telephone or wireless cellular modem. In addition to the above-mentioned computing means, an Internet-enabled wireless application protocol (WAP) phone may be incorporated into the location determination unit under this embodiment of the present invention.
In this preferred embodiment, as a user identifies the advertisement of interest, the system is initiated to determine the location of the advertisement. The positioning information determined by the location determination unit is then communicated to the mobile computing device which, in turn, is transmitted via its wireless communication link to the implementing server or Internet. The implementing server then indexes the geo-coded database for the data record pertaining to the advertisement. When the information is found, it is transmitted back to the mobile computing device for the user to view and interact at the point of advertisement and in real time.